Foodpanda Acquires Holachef To Enter Into Cloud Kitchen Network

Foodpanda, a food-tech startup which is now owned by Ola, has announced the acquisition of Holachef, a Mumbai-based startup operating in the same segment. The amount for the acquisition deal remains undisclosed.

A couple of months ago, there were reports suggesting that Foodpanda was in advanced talks to buy Holachef, which had shuttered operations in April this year.

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As a part of this deal, Foodpanda will take over Holachef’s employees and kitchen equipments. Holachef founders—Anil Gelra, Gaurav Srivastava and Saurabh Saxena—will join the leadership team at Foodpanda.

With this acquisition, Foodpanda marks its strategic entry into cloud kitchens and plans to launch its own brand of food products in different categories.

Commenting on this, Pranay Jivrajka, CEO of Foodpanda India said,

Through the Ola platform, we have an unmatched access to over 150 Mn customers and an understanding of their preferences. With Holachef, we aim to build India’s largest cloud kitchen network that will be a major step in further elevating the food experience for our customers.

Holachef was founded in 2015 by Saurabh Saxena and Anil Gelra. It acts as an aggregator and connects customers with chefs across the city. Customers can order through the mobile app or the desktop and it also claims to offer a new menu selection every day.

Saurabh Saxena, Co-founder of Holachef said,

Our mission with Holachef is to serve incredible food experiences to customers through kitchens with the highest quality & hygiene standards. We are delighted to join hands with Foodpanda, to accelerate our mission. We are thrilled to be part of Foodpanda’s and Ola’s passionate team that is truly changing the food experience for a billion Indians!

Foodpanda currently has a delivery network of 125,000 partners. As per the reports, Ola may raise a new funding round for Foodpanda, and was reportedly in talks to acquire Freshmenu and private-label food items.

While India’s food-tech space has seen rapid growth in the past couple of years, several startups—including TinyOwl, Yumist and Dazo—have shut shop as survival became difficult in this highly competitive space.

She started at Venture Dreams as an intern and later graduated as a writer. She is a start-up enthusiast and likes to cover stories on startup fundings and acquisitions. Feel free to contact her at [email protected]